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Norton is a known System Hog! I quit using them years ago. PC World & PC Magazine online periodically rate most all of the vendors.

There are several Pop-Up blockers available but I don't bother with them. Most all sites have oodles of Ads on them now and I just deal with it. That's the way it goes. Just deal with it.

Basically there really is no reason to Pay for any AV suite. Free editions of many products are out there. I just update and run them every week, it's no big deal. I've been using the Free editions of Panda & Malwarebytes the last few years and am happy with them. Did run AdAware too with those for a while but decided it was Overkill. Previously used AVG and Avast before Panda, just pick what you like using.

I haven't been hit with any Viruses since Sasser32 way back in '98 or so. Most stuff still comes from people clicking on Junk E-Mails. I have subscribed to MSN Premium since like Forever and they have Excellent Junk Mail filters. I just look at the list and I know the few vendors I expect mail from and OK them and just Dump the rest.

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Norton sucks and is hard to get off your system-- there's plenty of free av's out there that are better than most pay ones-- AVG, Microsoft Security Essentials-- just use the free versions the pay ones usually just have added things you don't really need-- I also would add malwarebytes in addition to your anti-virus, it's not quite the same as an AV and won't conflict with your AV but it can catch things your AV doesn't.

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If you haven't already, download, install, and run MalwareBytes. It scans for malware because that sounds like what you have. Virus programs aren't made to combat that. Once you've done that, download and install a program called Hitman Pro and run it. It's a paid program but it's free for the first 30 days and you don't have to put in a credit card to download the trial. Hitman does a super thorough cleaning of any hint of malware and it will pick up anything Malwarebytes misses. Malwarebytes is good for keeping it away once Hitman detects everything and eliminates it on it's first run. I usually set it to run once a week.

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...and for the record, I'm almost five years in on having switched over to Mac and this OS X hasn't failed me *ONCE* in terms of any viruses. Granted, I rarely got them on Windows machines because I used Mozilla's browser instead of IE.

RalphMouth - if you're on a PC, once you've cleaned the system and rid it of the 'searchpage.com' hi-jack, download and install Mozilla Firefox, or perhaps Google Chrome. Use either one of those instead of Internet Explorer. Despite Internet Explorer's improvements over the years, they're still an easy window into the soul of your operating system, and thus make your system much more 'hi-jackable' when you use it compared to Firefox and Chrome. That's mission critical, in my opinion.

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I found that with google chrome, sometimes just resetting the browser to default settings solves a lot of issues that I had.

once I even had a version of the FBI virus and it even solved that, must have been a version that was attached to the browser--

got the FBI once before, worse, I couldn't even boot in safe mode, fortunately I had just cloned the HD to upgrade to a bigger one just before it happened and still had the original HD and was able to clone it again to the new one which cleared the virus. I still keep that original smaller HD just in case

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If you haven't already, download, install, and run MalwareBytes. It scans for malware because that sounds like what you have. Virus programs aren't made to combat that. Once you've done that, download and install a program called Hitman Pro and run it. It's a paid program but it's free for the first 30 days and you don't have to put in a credit card to download the trial. Hitman does a super thorough cleaning of any hint of malware and it will pick up anything Malwarebytes misses. Malwarebytes is good for keeping it away once Hitman detects everything and eliminates it on it's first run. I usually set it to run once a week.

This computer was used by wife for mostly UMUC classes x 2 years, online shopping and little else. It's now operating via light speed! She now teaches online classes and who knows maybe I'll inherit a I8 core in another 2 years, meanwhile the I5 is fine for me..

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That's still Bogus. Check Windows Update & see if that's current. Might want to check your Video Card Driver (if you have one) on their MFG site. If that comes up OK there's still something hanging in there, There are no "Microsoft Partners" telling you abt outdated drivers just scams trying to sell you stuff to "Clean" or "Protect" your PC. Try the Hitman Pro trial edition that Ken advised. See if that roots out anything.

What OS version are you running? A Clean Install of W7 should wipe everything but then you have to re-install all the stuff you had on it.

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That's still Bogus. Check Windows Update & see if that's current. Might want to check your Video Card Driver (if you have one) on their MFG site. If that comes up OK there's still something hanging in there, There are no "Microsoft Partners" telling you abt outdated drivers just scams trying to sell you stuff to "Clean" or "Protect" your PC. Try the Hitman Pro trial edition that Ken advised. See if that roots out anything.

What OS version are you running? A Clean Install of W7 should wipe everything but then you have to re-install all the stuff you had on it.

Using Win 8, no, not gutsy or dumb enough to try and update. If it's not the annoying things ought to be illegal.

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Norton is a system hog. And it leaves footprints all over your system. I recommend Malwarebytes and one of the less obtrusive anti-virus programs mentioned above. There are several free ones available the seem to work well.

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Either Google "Best Anti Virus of 2015" or go directly to PC Mag or PC World on the 'net. Both pubs will have articles on their picks. Basically the biggest difference from Free and paid is that you have to Manually check for Updates for them. No Biggie, do it once a week then run them. In the past I've used AVG and Avast but now have Panda on my PC & Laptops. Whatever interface you like best. Sure they'll all give you pop ups every day to Upgrade to the paid version, so what. I get the Win10 pop up everyday too but ignore it. (I'm sticking with 7!) Malwarebytes I run too in case anything slips through. I did have AdAware too but decided that was Overkill so I dropped it

Just watch any Freebies you might Download & Install like Video or MP3 players or anything else. Always read the Boxes before hitting the OK or Continue button, A DivX upgrade installed a Browser Hijacker that I finally got rid of with HitMan Pro. Don't Express Install, check Manual and LOOK at the options that come up. OHHH! There's where I can Opt Out of that Junk I didn't want. Even my Free Auslogics Disk Defrag wants to install some Speed Boost junk.

Best Defense is just Watch what you Click on!

Now if I can just stop the Indians calling on my home phone telling me they're my Microsoft Agent or whatever trying to Scam me. Yesterday the guy got started and I yelled at him, "This Scam is over 2 years Old now and Everyone knows about it, Quit Calling Me!" They'll probably call me again in another couple weeks. And the people from Sirius who want me to start up my Car Radio again. Nope! I have my Audiobooks on Thumbs in the MP3 port.

Edited September 18, 2015 by Bartman

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Either Google "Best Anti Virus of 2015" or go directly to PC Mag or PC World on the 'net. Both pubs will have articles on their picks. Basically the biggest difference from Free and paid is that you have to Manually check for Updates for them. No Biggie, do it once a week then run them. In the past I've used AVG and Avast but now have Panda on my PC & Laptops. Whatever interface you like best. Sure they'll all give you pop ups every day to Upgrade to the paid version, so what. I get the Win10 pop up everyday too but ignore it. (I'm sticking with 7!) Malwarebytes I run too in case anything slips through. I did have AdAware too but decided that was Overkill so I dropped it

Just watch any Freebies you might Download & Install like Video or MP3 players or anything else. Always read the Boxes before hitting the OK or Continue button, A DivX upgrade installed a Browser Hijacker that I finally got rid of with HitMan Pro. Don't Express Install, check Manual and LOOK at the options that come up. OHHH! There's where I can Opt Out of that Junk I didn't want. Even my Free Auslogics Disk Defrag wants to install some Speed Boost junk.

Best Defense is just Watch what you Click on!

Now if I can just stop the Indians calling on my home phone telling me they're my Microsoft Agent or whatever trying to Scam me. Yesterday the guy got started and I yelled at him, "This Scam is over 2 years Old now and Everyone knows about it, Quit Calling Me!" They'll probably call me again in another couple weeks. And the people from Sirius who want me to start up my Car Radio again. Nope! I have my Audiobooks on Thumbs in the MP3 port.

One time when the Microsoft employee called me, I said that I thought something was wrong and that earlier in the week, I had caught my dog typing on the keyboard and I was sure he caused the problem. Before he could speak, I asked him if this was a common way computers got infected. Dead air, then the opening script again.

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...and for the record, I'm almost five years in on having switched over to Mac and this OS X hasn't failed me *ONCE* in terms of any viruses. Granted, I rarely got them on Windows machines because I used Mozilla's browser instead of IE.

RalphMouth - if you're on a PC, once you've cleaned the system and rid it of the 'searchpage.com' hi-jack, download and install Mozilla Firefox, or perhaps Google Chrome. Use either one of those instead of Internet Explorer. Despite Internet Explorer's improvements over the years, they're still an easy window into the soul of your operating system, and thus make your system much more 'hi-jackable' when you use it compared to Firefox and Chrome. That's mission critical, in my opinion.

Most browser hijacks come from installing free software using their automatic or default install option. Always use the Custom Install option so that you can decline and uncheck the various additional software offers.

I also use Firefox, and have added the excellent browser extensions Adblock Plus, Adblock Plus Popup Addon, Better Privacy, Decentraleyes, NoScript, anduBlock Origin. These extensions actually reduce the amount of crap that my browser has to deal with before it gets to the Rose Garden, and ultimately speeds up my page load time.